Page 39 of Shift of Shadows

“To find her?”

“To find myself.” And to find her, I didn’t say.

Ethan knew me well enough to know that. “I could come with you.”

I linked our fingers together. “If that were true, I’d take you.”

“Hmm. Where would you want to go first?”

I lied. “Spain, I think.”

Ethan went still before letting out a sad breath. “I know what you’re doing. Does it have its hooks into me so far you can’t be honest with me about anything?”

“I can’t be honest about everything. Up until now, I’ve told you the truth. Sharing anything about my plans is risky. You of all people should understand.”

Ethan was a born strategist. If there was a plan in place, he was four steps ahead. “I do,” he grumbled. “But I don’t have to like it.”

He shifted and tightened his grip around my waist. “I came here for you, didn’t I?”

I nodded. “We’re linked together so tightly not even the spell can break it. You’re drawn here and don’t know why.”

“I know why,” Ethan growled.

“You don’t know why when you’re under the influence,” I clarified. “And it bugs the shit out of you.”

“How do I break the spell?”

I answered as gently as I could. “Evie and I suspect if you remembered what happened to Sarah, you’d weaken the spell enough to shake yourself out from under her influence, but this magic is not typical witch magic. The spell is combined with true necromancy, and you are in a feedback loop with the life force of another.”

“So you don’t know.”

I shrugged. “We suspect, but none of us have seen magic like this before. But this one is also a multi-part spell. First, Sarah is reanimated into flesh and blood. Second comes the feedback loop tying another’s life force into Sarah’s body. Third is your memory wipe. The spell wouldn’t work without it. People don’t come back to life without miracles.”

Like me. But I didn’t say that. It was bad enough Ethan knew I was alive. My mother would know soon enough, too, if she bothered to look.

My phone buzzed.

Sarah is at the wards being a real pain in the cooter.